Bot facts for kids
A bot is a computer program that works automatically. It can do tasks that would be difficult or take a long time for a person to do. Think of it as an automated or semi-automated tool or script. Bots can be simple or very complex.
Some bots, called software agents, help a user by doing tasks they are programmed for. For example, chatbots can talk with people using natural language processing, which helps them understand what you say.
More advanced bots include:
- Intelligent agents which can use artificial intelligence to learn and solve problems.
- Autonomous agents that can change how they work to reach their goals. There are also multi-agent systems where many bots work together to achieve something a single bot couldn't do alone.
- Mobile agents can even move their work from one computer processor to another.
What are the main concerns about bots?
People are learning more about how bots work, especially when it comes to collecting information. This is called data mining. Data mining means gathering information about how people use things online, or about the users themselves. This information is often used for business or other purposes.
For example, in the European Union, bots now need to ask for your permission before they can collect your data. Before, they could collect any data they wanted to help the companies that used them.
There are rules, like the European Union's copyright law for databases, that protect information. More recently, there's been a focus on protecting the personal data of users.
Data mining will be very important in the future. On websites like Wikipedia, bots are used often for helpful tasks, but they collect very little personal data.
Where does the word "bot" come from?
The word "bot" is short for "robot". You might see "bot" as part of other words or names, like:
See also
- In Spanish: Bot (desambiguación) para niños
